Who plays Maxine in ‘Only Murders in the Building?’

Warning: Spoilers for Only Murders in the Building to follow.

Season three of Only Murders in the Building has finally landed, and those perfect critic scores couldn’t have been more prophetical; indeed, with its trademark blend of comedy and drama all neatly wrapped up in a peculiarly delightful crime fiction coating, the third round of television’s cheekiest murder mystery is off to a fantastic start.

As Oliver finishes recruiting the cast of his murder mystery play Death Rattle, it’s not long before the untimely demise of Ben (Paul Rudd), the play’s lead, kicks off the business-as-usual state of affairs for Oliver, Charles, and Mabel once again.

But that’s only part of Oliver’s concerns; during Ben’s funeral, he happens upon a theatre critic named Maxine who wastes no time in telling him that she’ll be giving his play a negative review, which nearly lands Oliver among season three’s body count.

We only spent a few minutes with her, but some folks may have found Maxine to be strikingly familiar; indeed, who exactly plays Maxine, and where might we have seen her before?

What actress plays Maxine in Only Murders in the Building?

Maxine is played by Noma Dumezweni, a Tony Award-nominated actress who has more than a few notable credits to her name on both stage and screen.

Dumezweni is a two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner, first winning the 2006 Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Play award for playing Ruth Younger in the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production A Raisin in the Sun. She won again in 2017, this time for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, for her role of Hermione Granger in the original West End run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a character she would play again in the Broadway run and which would get her the nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Where else have I seen Noma Dumezweni?

Dumezweni’s first screen credit was as the character Celia in the 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things, where she shared the screen with future MCU stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong. She would later follow in her co-stars’ Disney footsteps with roles in Mary Poppins Returns, where she played Weatherall’s secretary Miss Penny Farthing, and 2023’s The Little Mermaid, in which she portrayed Queen Selina, the adoptive mother of Prince Eric.

She would also reunite with Ejiofor in 2019 for his directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, where she played the character Edith Sikelo. She will also star alongside Liam Neeson in the upcoming action thriller Retribution.

As for television, Dumezweni has had a number of guest roles in high-profile British shows such as EastEnders and Doctor Who, the latter of which saw her portray Captain Erisa Magambo, the UNIT officer in Donna Noble’s parallel universe. She also had a main role in the Michaela Coel-led thriller series Black Earth Rising, in which she played Rwandan government official Alice Munezero.